


i don't care what's fake as long as your kiss is real

by thefaceofno



Category: S.C.I.谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (TV)
Genre: Case of the Week, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Sharing Clothes, written for a prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-01-31 12:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21446155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefaceofno/pseuds/thefaceofno
Summary: “Zhan Yao.”Zhan Yao keeps staring directly ahead, his jaw clenched.“Cat.”“Why do you make me do this.”“I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”Zhan Yao slowly turns his head to give Yutong an incredulous look. If looks could kill, well, Yutong would probably have been stabbed at least three times. Zhan Yao isn’t fed up with him enough to want to kill him. Yet.The night’s still young.
Relationships: Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao
Comments: 30
Kudos: 274
Collections: Favourites, OneShots1, Sci1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> written for some prompts on tumblr (prompts in end notes)

“Zhan Yao.”

Nothing.

“Zhan Yao.”

Zhan Yao keeps staring directly ahead, his jaw clenched.

“Cat.”

“Why do you make me do this.”

“I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

Zhan Yao slowly turns his head to give Yutong an incredulous look. If looks could kill, well, Yutong would probably have been stabbed at least three times. Zhan Yao isn’t fed up with him enough to want to kill him. Yet.

The night’s still young.

“Do I have to be here?”

“You’ve got to identify the target, none of the rest of us are masters of psychology.”

He’s also the only one Yutong can pretend to be in a relationship with, but Yutong isn’t going to say that. Then he’d have to admit that he’s too in love with Zhan Yao to pretend to be in a relationship with anyone else. And that he was only desperate to be in the field for this mission because being in love with Zhan Yao is getting him worked up in a way he’s never been before. And now he has to pretend to be with Zhan Yao because their cover is a newlywed couple. Maybe he didn’t think this through.

“But do I have to look like this?” Zhan Yao tugs at the lapel of his jacket. “We would have looked fine if I wore my own clothes. This is unnecessary.”

“Cat, matching outfits are cute, and we need to be overly cute to make people believe that you’re in love with me. This way, you don’t have to act as much!”

Never mind that Yutong has been in love with Zhan Yao since they were reunited and Zhan Yao proved to be the same snippy asshole he always was. Never mind that seeing Zhan Yao in his clothes is giving him a possessive thrill that he doesn’t know what to do with.

Now that he’s seen it once, he wants to see Zhan Yao in his clothes again and again and again. He convinced Zhan Yao by saying that this is fair – he’s already worn Zhan Yao’s clothes, even though that was voluntary and in the privacy of Zhan Yao’s flat. That made him feel –

It doesn’t matter.

Zhan Yao gives him another look. “And why do we have to pretend we’re in love?”

“It's our cover. And public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable. We want them to remember us but not want to look at us.”

Zhan Yao makes a noise.

Yutong looks over at him. He looks so good dressed all in white.

Yutong did not think this through. He’s going to be all over Zhan Yao all night and tomorrow he’ll have to go back to keeping a careful distance between them. It’s not like they have many boundaries, but he’s worried that this night will make him forget what they all are.

Zhan Yao is still staring straight ahead, and his clenched jaw is starting to look painful.

They turn the corner and get into the queue to get into the fancy ball.

Yutong might as well lean into it if this is the only chance he’s going to get.

Or lean into Zhan Yao.

He faces Zhan Yao, and smooths out his lapels, shamelessly strokes down his chest, slides his hands to Zhan Yao’s waist and leans in so their lips are nearly _nearly_ touching, so Zhan Yao can feel his breath as he squeezes gently and says softly, “You look _yummy_, stop complaining.”

Zhan Yao leans back. His expression is not very “in love.” He looks more like he’s trying to hold himself back from strangling Yutong.

His eyes flick to the people standing in the queue behind them. “Huh. It works.”

“What?” Yutong asks.

Zhan Yao looks behind them again, then leans in and mirrors exactly what Yutong just did to him. His breath is ghosting over Yutong’s cheek, his hands are at his arm and on his waist. He’s almost looming over Yutong, and Yutong’s knees feel weak.

He hates that Zhan Yao can do this to him.

“The people behind us started avoiding looking at us.” His voice is more of a murmur, and it takes Yutong a second to restart his brain and process what he’s said.

They’re on a case. He has to get it together.

He gives Zhan Yao a smug look. “Told you.”

They get into the party and mingle, Yutong keeps his body angled towards Zhan Yao, and keeps himself always half-tucked into his shoulder, so Zhan Yao can always put his hand on the small of his back and guide him closer.

Which he does a few times.

Yutong’s breath comes shorter and his own hands go a little tingly when Zhan Yao’s fingertips brush his spine.

He needs to get laid.

He needs to get over Zhan Yao.

Zhan Yao guides him towards the dance floor and Yutong curses that they need to be this close.

“I think it’s the man in the suit with the red ascot. He looks like he’s trying to assess the room, figure us all out.” Zhan Yao says.

He turns them, and Yutong looks at the man he means. Zhan Yao is right, he’s not doing a very good job of scouting. Then again, if he’s an assassin for hire, he’s the most handsome assassin Yutong has ever seen. If he wasn’t looking for an assassin, he’d glance over this guy completely. 

“He could just be scouting for someone to take home tonight. He’s handsome.” Yutong says, watching his eyes catch on a lady in a form-fitting red dress.

“He was looking at us.” Zhan Yao says, his face going stony.

“Maybe he wants to go home with us.” Yutong says, and stifles a laugh at the pinched expression on Zhan Yao’s face.

“He wasn’t looking at any other men. Let me test something.” Zhan Yao says, and guides Yutong in their slow and clumsy waltz closer to the man in the ascot.

Zhan Yao slows them down as they get closer, pulls Yutong to him and doesn’t even try to lower his voice as he says, “I love dancing with you, I want to dance through a field of fireflies with you.”

Yutong watches everyone in his field of view avert their eyes from him and Zhan Yao. Like magnetic repulsion, he thinks with an internal laugh.

Zhan Yao keeps their dance going, and once they’re a little further away and Yutong’s back is once again facing the man in the ascot, he finally lets out the snort he was keeping in. “That was so cheesy, cat! Is that how you try and seduce people? No wonder you’re still single.”

Zhan Yao pinches him.

Yutong is shocked. He’ll get Zhan Yao back for that.

“He was still looking at us.”

“Maybe he has no social boundaries. Usually infiltrators are more subtle.”

“He’s leaving, let’s follow him.” Zhan Yao says, his eyes trained on the man in the ascot.

Yutong takes him by the hand and leads him away from the dancefloor, towards the door the man in the ascot went through. This is a big venue, grand and with a lot of branching corridors. But Yutong is a professional, and he knows how to tail someone.

He drops Zhan Yao’s hand as soon as they’re through the door, and goes through the door that’s swinging closed to the left of them. He’s immmediately faced by another corridor. He moves at a half run, not wanting to make too much noise, trying to listen out for doors shutting in front of them.

He sees a door swinging shut down another corridor, and veers into it, Zhan Yao following close behind.

He’s about to burst through the door and take out his gun when Zhan Yao grabs him, slams him against the wall and kisses him.

Yutong is about to push him away and ask what the hell is going on when Zhan Yao slides a hand into his hair and angles his head better, then coaxes him into kissing back.

It’s not like he was going to try _very_ hard at pushing Zhan Yao away.

He melts into it, lets his hands come up to grip Zhan Yao’s back and kisses him like he’s desperate for it.

Well. He is.

Zhan Yao is a really good kisser.

Yutong has given up on being aware of anything but Zhan Yao’s lips, the press of his body, the feel of his hand cradling Yutong’s face like he’s something precious.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Zhan Yao pulls away, but keeps his body pressed against Yutong’s.

Zhan Yao looks at the man in the ascot, standing just along the corridor from them.

“That’s no problem, we just needed to get away from the party for a bit, you know how it is.” Zhan Yao says with a little laugh.

His hand is still in Yutong’s hair, and Yutong doesn’t want to turn his head for fear he’ll move it, so he’s just staring at Zhan Yao, the way his eyes crease as he laughs self-deprecatingly, the way his lips are redder than usual and his cheeks stay flushed as he presses himself a little harder into Yutong.

If he does that any more Yutong is going to get hard for real, then there’s going to be a bigger problem than a possible-assassin expertly shaking a tail. Scratch that, most professionals can’t shake Yutong tailing them. This is definitely their guy.

Yutong is a little offended he made it seem so easy, to be honest. He’s going to blame being distracted by Zhan Yao, and thankful for Zhan Yao’s quick thinking.

For a second there he did think, with the way Zhan Yao was kissing him, he thought that maybe Zhan Yao –

Nevermind.

“I’ll just –“ the man in the ascot motions to the door at the other end of the corridor, then starts walking.

It’s a long corridor.

Zhan Yao goes straight back to his mouth like he’s starving for more. 

Got to keep up the act, right?

Zhan Yao tilts his head up with a thumb under his chin, and kisses down his neck.

Yutong’s not going to be able to pretend he’s not enjoying this if Zhan Yao –

Zhan Yao sucks a mark onto the side of his neck, like he knows where Yutong is most sensitive.

Yutong can’t stop himself from whining and clenching his hands on Zhan Yao’s shoulders, pulling him closer.

He didn’t beg, and he’s counting that as a win.

He hears the door swing shut, and Zhan Yao moves back to his mouth. Zhan Yao doesn’t stop kissing him.

Their suspect is getting away.

Zhan Yao kisses him deeply, one last time, then pulls himself away and drops a final, chaste kiss on the side of Yutong’s mouth. Like a farewell.

“We should follow him.” Yutong manages to get out. His voice sounds all raspy. He’s not entirely sure that he’ll be able to stand by himself if Zhan Yao takes his hands away.

Zhan Yao also looks a little shellshocked. Yutong is proud that he did that.

“Yeah, yeah.” Zhan Yao says, and pulls away, straightening his suit. He nods like he’s trying to centre himself.

Maybe Yutong could get him to fall in love with him. This is the first time he’s seen Zhan Yao shaken up like this, and he adores it. Maybe he has hope, maybe Zhan Yao could be convinced to take a chance on him.

After they get their suspect.

Yutong slides out from under Zhan Yao – he didn’t go far when he pulled away, and he’s still looming. Yutong doesn’t know how he does that, they’re basically the same height.

Yutong heads down the corridor after the man in the ascot, not running yet. He’s not sure his legs can take it.


	2. Chapter 2

After planting a tracker on the suspect and getting confirmation that he seems to have gone home for the night – he was likely at the party to get an in with his next target – and confirmation that they’ll be contacted if anything happens, Yutong drives Zhan Yao home.

He’s not sure if he can invite himself in. Sure, he’s been practically living with Zhan Yao for months under the excuse of “protecting him” but mostly protecting him from his own self-destructive habits when he forgets to eat or sleep. But they haven’t passionately kissed against a wall before, and they haven’t pretended to be together, danced together, essentially _confessed_ to each other before.

What was that fireflies thing? Yutong is desperate to know what it meant, what the kiss meant, why Zhan Yao kissed him one last time like a _goodbye_ when they parted.

Yutong is desperate to know if he can get Zhan Yao to fall for him as hard as he’s fallen for Zhan Yao.

He parks the car.

He makes them dinner.

Zhan Yao is letting absolutely nothing through, his face is a mile thick.

They go to bed.

Surely it means something that they’re sharing a bed still, even after that kiss? Yutong hungrily watches Zhan Yao for any sign of him wavering, having a second thought, anything.

There’s nothing.

He falls asleep.

He wakes up, and it’s just like any other morning. The normal routine, pretend he wasn’t hugging Zhan Yao in his sleep, have a shower, start making breakfast, go for a run, finish making breakfast, deal with Zhan Yao sleep-soft and blinking hazily as he eats the breakfast Yutong gives him and sips from the glass they share.

Good signs. He can get Zhan Yao to fall in love with him.

By the end of breakfast Zhan Yao is much more awake, and he hasn’t behaved any differently towards Yutong.

“I have a lecture today, so I’ll take a taxi to the university.” Zhan Yao says, heading back to his bedroom to get changed.

Yutong sits at the table, staring after him. He’s thin, too thin, even with Yutong feeding him every day. Obviously Yutong can’t move out, Zhan Yao is already used to his cooking and would starve without him here. Hopefully Zhan Yao will fall in love with him so he can stay and make sure Zhan Yao is fed all the time.

Yutong opens his phone and scrolls through emails from the SCI night shift. Ma Han had gone to follow the man who they planted a tracker on and found him staking out an apartment building. The apartment was listed as belonging to one of the richer people at the party. Incidentally, the same person who is involved in running a cult – advertised as a new-wave religion, but all the members who join are cut off from their families, and some mysteriously go missing.

The higher-ranking members of the new-wave religion have all been disappearing lately. This guy seems too professional to be the mastermind behind all the attacks. It’s likely he’s just a gun for hire. If he’s tailing the next target, they bring him in and get him to reveal who hired him.

Zhan Yao comes out of the bedroom as Yutong gets a notification on his phone asking him to come to the SID office. He gets up, and Zhan Yao comes up to him, says “I’ll see you later,” in a low voice, and presses a kiss to the side of his mouth in the exact same place he did yesterday, then leaves.

Yutong is frozen.

The door shuts behind him.

Yutong jumps.

What was _that_.

He turns to the door, then springs into action, ripping it open and running into the hall but Zhan Yao is already gone, he probably ran down the stairs.

Did he do that just to mess with Yutong?

“I’ll get you for that, cat.”

He thinks he hears Zhan Yao’s laughter from down the stairs, but it’s drowned out by him stalking back into the apartment and slamming the door behind him.

He will get that cat to fall in love with him, then they’ll see who’s laughing!

He goes to SID, fuming a little bit.

“What.” He demands of Ma Han.

She looks at him, glances at his neck, then hands him a file and doesn’t flinch. “He’s in the interrogation room.”

He opens the file. “Have you interrogated him?”

“Was waiting for your call, Bai Sir.”

He glares at her, but he can’t fault her at all. Anything else and he would have yelled.

“Who is he?”

“Assassin for hire. Whoever hired him is rich, he’s expensive. One of the best on the continent. Don’t think he’s ever been caught before, he was very confused when we brought him in.”

“You sure he was just acting confused? We haven’t arrested the wrong guy?”

Ma Han points to the case on the table.

There’s a sniper rifle in there.

“Unless civilians usually carry these and three handguns on their person and in their car, I think we got the right person.”

He closes the file. “Good job.”

He hands it back and goes into the viewing room. The man isn’t in his suit anymore, he’s changed into jeans, an old t-shirt and jacket, and a cap pulled low over his eyes. He’s staring at his hands, looking very annoyed.

Yutong touches his neck. It's sensitive. That's where Zhan Yao sucked a mark right before -

He ignores it and goes into the interrogation room.

“You want to tell us who hired you and why?”

The man looks at him.

Yutong stares back. It takes a lot to break Yutong’s focus.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“What?” That one he wasn’t expecting. He should have been, though.

“Your boyfriend. The one at the party.”

“What about him.”

“I know his name, his address, everything. So does my employer.”

“Are you threatening him?”

“I’m suggesting you don’t want to get on the wrong side of my employer. I can’t do anything from here.”

“So your employer is going to know we arrested you and kill my boyfriend in retaliation?”

The man looks up at him. “His information is airtight. He knows everything. His warning shots come in the form of people you love, dead. I’m going to miss my check-in, and I assume both me and your boyfriend will be dead by morning if you don’t let me go.”

“You should tell me who hired you.”

“No.”

Yutong decides to take a different tactic.

“What’s my boyfriend’s name?”

“What?” The man looks surprised.

“What’s my boyfriend’s name?” Yutong repeats.

“Zhan Yao.”

“That’s not my boyfriend.” Yutong tells him.

“Then he’s Zhao Liyang. It’s one of the two names. I knew you were with the police, but I didn’t know which profile of his was legit.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Yutong repeats. This guy is getting annoying.

He stares at Yutong. “You’re bluffing.”

Zhan Yao is his friend and his colleague. Zhao Liyang is his fake-cover husband.

“He’s my husband.” Yutong says.

A bead of sweat forms on the man’s forehead.

“Your employer’s information doesn’t seem so airtight. Tell me, what is his name.”

The man holds his nerve for another second, then breaks.

“I want protection, I want protection if you’re going to take him down. He’ll have me killed, I don’t even know his real name but I know he’ll have me killed.”

“You’ll get protection.” Yutong assures him, and begins collecting information as the man talks.

He walks out of the interrogation room and goes into the main room. He tells Ma Han to be at the checkpoint with the rest of the team monitoring, requests a track on the burner phone the man had on him, and turns to go back to his office.

Zhan Yao is standing there.

“Zhan Yao. Don’t you have a lecture?”

“It ended. I was wondering if I could help here.”

“Let’s go and eat. I’ll tell you about the case.”

Zhan Yao nods and walks with him to the elevators. Yutong tells him about the development of the case, but his mind is miles away.

Well, not that far away. He’s thinking about Zhan Yao. This is what he should do to get Zhan Yao to fall in love with him, right? Romance is about taking the person you like on dates, for example, to get food? Except he always gets lunch with Zhan Yao, so this isn’t special. How can he show Zhan Yao that this is special, that he’s someone Zhan Yao should fall in love with?

Gifts?

Zhan Yao gets his notebook out, marks down a few characters with a cheap pen, then slips both back into his pocket.

He could get Zhan Yao a better pen?

They eat, and he makes a pointed effort to not infuriate or wind up Zhan Yao. Zhan Yao starts looking at him oddly after about twenty minutes.

Is it working?

Yutong pays, but Yutong always pays so again, that’s not special.

He grabs Zhan Yao by the wrist and guides him to walk beside Yutong. He probably can’t take his hand yet, he’d be shaken off.

“Where are we going? The office is the other way.” Zhan Yao says.

“We’re going to get you a new pen.”

“Why?”

“That pen was free, it’s going to explode all over your nice suit trousers at any second. I’m going to get you a nice pen so you can write our case notes neatly, and not risk the pen exploding every time you put it away.”

“You just want your cases solved faster.”

“Maybe.”

Zhan Yao couldn’t be more wrong. Yutong would prefer that Zhan Yao talk to him about the cases instead of writing them in his little book, but one thing at a time. Maybe after Zhan Yao is in love with him, he can try for more.

Yutong takes him to a place where he can get his own name engraved on the pen. Zhan Yao looks at a price tag and goes pale.

“Yutong, you can’t get me this, it’s too expensive. What if I lose it?”

“Don’t lose it then. What about this one?” Yutong holds up a white-gold pen.

Zhan Yao raises his eyebrows.

There’s a selection of cheaper pens on the wall by the door, and he heads for those. Yutong sighs, how is he meant to get Zhan Yao to fall in love with him if he can’t even buy him the nicest thing in the store?

“This one.” Zhan Yao says, picking one that is slim, sleek, would fit in his pocket and matches his notebook.

Yutong has to admit he has a good eye.

He could buy seven of these for the price of the other one.

Hey, he could get Zhan Yao seven of these pe-

“_Just_ this one is fine. I really don’t need a new pen, but if you’re apologising for something you haven’t done yet, this is a good apology.”

Yutong looks at him, offended. He’s going to buy the pen anyway, but he’s got to let Zhan Yao know he’s offended.

He gets Zhan Yao the pen, and they head back to SCI. When they’re in his office, Zhan Yao hunkers down and starts furiously writing away in his notebook with his new pen.

Yutong watches him for a second, then catches himself, and starts to work.

“So what do you want in return for the pen?” Zhan Yao asks out of nowhere about a half hour later.

“What? Nothing. It’s just a gift.”

“A gift? Yutong, have you done something? You’ve been acting strange all day.”

“No, nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Yutong.”

When Yutong looks up Zhan Yao is looking at him, looking through him. Zhan Yao knows him better than anyone else in the world, and he can probably see all the thoughts in Yutong’s head written all over his face.

Naturally, he gets up and tries to flee.

Zhan Yao stands up and blocks the door.

“Yutong.”

Yutong is half a step away from him. He runs through some throws he could do to get Zhan Yao out of the way. “Zhan Yao.”

“Did kissing me upset you?”

Yutong starts paying attention to what’s actually going on on Zhan Yao’s face. “What?”

His eyebrows are furrowed. “You’ve been treating me strangely. You don’t usually just buy me things.”

“Maybe I wanted to buy you something.”

“Yutong. Tell me what’s going on.”

Yutong sighs and meets Zhan Yao’s eyes.

“I’m trying to get you to fall in love with me.”

Zhan Yao’s face is completely blank.

Yutong coughs. “Well, I have to be anywhere but here.” He says with a smile, then ducks, tries to get around Zhan Yao again but Zhan Yao spins him and presses his back up against the wall, caging him in.

“You’re not allowed to leave.”

Zhan Yao is nearly pressed up against the whole length of him. Yutong is having vivid sense memories of what it was like to kiss him. He makes a noise that he hopes comes out as an "okay” and not a whimper.

“You’re trying to get me to fall in love with you?”

Yutong nods.

“You idiot.”

Well that’s rude. “If you don’t want to fall in love with me, you just have to say! You don’t have to be mean, I-“

Zhan Yao covers his mouth with his hand.

Yutong licks his hand.

Zhan Yao pulls his hand away in disgust and wipes it on Yutong’s blazer. “Disgusting, mouse! I don’t know why I’m in love with you.”

Yutong is ready to say it’s Zhan Yao’s own fault his hand got licked. He’s ready to get indignant that his jacket has to be laundered. Instead, he doesn’t say any of that, and stares at Zhan Yao with his mouth a little open, like a fish.

“You’re what?”

“I fell for you ages ago, I thought it was obvious when I let you keep living with me. Anyone else, I would have kicked out the minute I wasn’t in danger anymore.”

Yutong shuts his mouth.

“You are an idiot.”

“Hey, you didn’t know I’m in love with you.” Yutong counters.

“That’s true. But Yutong, please don’t stop arguing with me. It’s very unsettling when you’re not being you.”

Yutong smiles at him.

“Ah, stop looking at me like that, you’re too soppy.”

“Kiss me then.”

Zhan Yao slides his hands into Yutong’s hair, tilts his head, and kisses him.

It feels perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they catch the bad guy of COURSE i have a plot idea but it'll take me another 4 months to write another 2k words hahaha  
siblings who need 2 learn u cannot buy things for someone until they love u

**Author's Note:**

> prompts  
#7 “I want to dance through an army of fireflies with you”  
#16 “You look yummy”
> 
> lightly edited (unedited) smh me start doing fics right challenge
> 
> haven't written for sci before and this was really fun!


End file.
